Page 251 of A Warrior's Fate

“How did you get away?”

Their grip on their blade tightened, but Isla didn’t feel threatened. “Remembered.”

Before Isla could ask if that’s why they hadn’t killed Kai, because they remembered, something rumbled from deeper within the tunnels. They all exchanged glances before the killer ran towards the sound. Isla followed. The stone walls she steadied herself against were cold and slick beneath her fingertips as she shimmied through the narrowing and widening path. Rainwater from the storm trickled down from above, weathering the stones.

This hadn’t been a true tunnel, not like the one they eventually stared down into.

Peering over the killer’s shoulder, Isla examined the crossroads. Four paths—north, south, east, west, she’d call them—with markers and large wooden poles wedged into the walls. Each had similar and differing symbols—symbols known by those who lived in Ares—and what was emerging from the western pathway…

Isla put a hand over her mouth and instinctually threw her hand over Renoir’s before he could utter a sound.

Three bak, their thick, heavy claws scraping along the tunnel floor, their harsh, labored breaths echoing off the walls, continued through to the east.

When they’d disappeared, Isla looked down at the killer, who hadn’t been alarmed at all.

That’s what all of this had been for. They’d known.

“Are you serious?” she whispered, barely over a breath. “Why didn’t you say it was bak?”

“Only three. We are three,” was their response.

Simple. Confident.

So, they were supposed to kill them.

Isla turned to Renoir, whose eyes had since dimmed. His claws and teeth had retracted while his body trembled. The guard was white as a ghost, gaping at the space the beasts had once been.

Three seemed more like two.

Renoir warbled, “Were—were those…”

“Yes.”

He swallowed thickly. “How–how did they get here? They should be behind the Wall.”

“Yes, they should.” Isla looked at the killer. “You know these tunnels. Where are they going? Is there an opening somewhere?”

“An opening.” They gathered themselves, their words. “At the base or into the arena. No longer closed.”

No longer closed. So, someone had opened them, and it wasn’t this narrow path. But the who could be figured out later.

Isla straightened. “The arena?”

Upon their nod, she began removing her uniform, and wouldn’t field Renoir’s questions about why she was doing so. If the bak got into the arena, or onto any pack ground, it would be a disaster. Any blood spilled before they were taken down would be too much.

“Renoir.” Isla turned, removing her tunic. “I want you to go back to the arena and tell Warrior General Ameera and Rhydian exactly what you saw. Don’t let anyone else hear.” The last thing they needed was to incite panic.

“Alpha Kai wouldn’t want me to leave you,” he said, fear of a new kind in his voice. Given the way he bowed again, she knew he’d figured what she was, who she was to his alpha.

Isla’s heart clenched. She didn’t want to think of Kai or what lay above. Didn’t want to glimpse over that wall she’d built.

Removing her pants, Isla let the fear of never seeing her mate again ebb away before it could arrest her and have her crumbling. “Alpha Kai will understand.”

“I–”

“Renoir.”

The guard stood straight.

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